Europe and Russia are flying to Mars – Republic

The full name of the mission is ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter in 2016. Its main task is to search for signs of life by the determination of the amount coming out from under the surface of Mars so. trace gases, which in very small quantities present in the atmosphere. Start took place on Monday, March 14, at 10.31 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The probe was a Russian rocket Proton M. Start the mission was to take place in January, but due to a fault in the two pressure sensors of the drive system of the lander Schiaparelli start was postponed for March. Poll lander will reach Mars in October this year.

Detectives life

The mission was jointly organized by the European Space Agency ESA and the Russian Space Agency – Roskosmos. Originally it was to be the mission of Euro-American, but because of budget cuts NASA withdrew from the project in February 2012.

the European Space Agency has taken far only one attempt to land on the Red planet, it was the Beagle 2 mission in 2003. Because contact with Beagle 2 was lost during landing, for many years it was believed that the lander crashed. Only this year, it turned out that the ship landed successfully, but does not provide information because of because of a defect does not spread fully antenna panels and solar cells.

the mission ExoMars includes artificial satellite – Euro-Russian probe designed to study the methane content in the atmosphere of Mars and transmission of data from orbit and the surface (Trace Gas Orbiter) – and the European lander Schiaparelli, which settles on the surface Mars weather station. Testing instruments placed on the satellite are designed to search for the planet’s surface trace gases related to the life or geological processes.

will help parachutes

the lander Schiaparelli detaches from TGO three days before landing. Enters the atmosphere at a speed of 21 000 km / h. After the braking phase in the atmosphere with a parachute rocket engines will slow the lander to a speed of 5 km / h, then at a height of 2 m motors are switched off, the lander settles on the surface impact will be cushioned by special buffers.